


Scenes From A Delivery Room

by Wapwani



Category: Last Tango In Halifax
Genre: F/F, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-10
Updated: 2014-12-10
Packaged: 2018-02-28 23:37:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2751404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wapwani/pseuds/Wapwani
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kate's having their baby. Pretty much mindless fluff.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Scenes From A Delivery Room

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for season two. Though other than the pregnancy, everything else is speculation.
> 
> Also, everything I know about the process of giving birth, I learned from watching Call The Midwife. Don't look to this story for accurate delivery facts is what I'm saying!

The delivery room was pretty crowded, what with the midwife, and Celia and Alan, and Kate’s mum Bonnie, and Kate’s aunt, and seemingly everyone else who just happened to be passing by and felt like dropping in to see just how far along Kate was, and where was this baby already? They had been having a quiet family dinner in the Harrogate house. Their families did so much to-ing and fro-ing now, that meal times had become amorphous things - you never really could be sure who would be gathered around your table. Tonight Gillian had popped round to see Alan and Celia, and they'd all stayed for dinner, and then Bonnie had dropped by unexpectedly with her sister Maria who was visiting from Liverpool. So there'd been quite an eclectic group eating dessert and arguing over baby names and the protocol of labour when Kate had suddenly grabbed Caroline's hand and said "Right."

It turned out she'd been having "twinges" for several hours now, but after last week's drama with the Braxton Hicks and all the stress they'd gone through, with Caroline driving the Jeep to the hospital as though it were a tank hurtling across a battlefield, Kate had decided to keep the pain to herself until the false contractions passed. Except they hadn't passed, and now they seemed to be coming quite steadily at fifteen minute intervals, and she was fairly concerned that she was actually in labour at a time when her mother and Caroline's mother were having an extremely heated discussion over whether or not Caroline should be allowed in the birthing room. Bonnie had ignored all Kate's warnings that now she and Caroline were partners, in every sense of the word, that Caroline would be the one she'd want at her side. And for all her reluctance to accept Caroline and Kate as a couple, Celia had come out guns blazing when she realised that Bonnie thought Caroline wasn't good enough for Kate. The two women were far too similar for this argument to end in anything but blood and tears. Even Kate's sudden announcement that she was "having this baby on this table" if they didn't stop it did nothing but put their squabbling on pause.

They'd picked up again almost as soon as they'd got in the labour room. For two diminutive women, they certainly knew how to fill up a space. Even Caroline's attention was split between watching Celia defend Caroline's sterling qualities as a mother, and Kate being helped up onto the bed by the midwife.

‘Deep breaths Caroline’ she told herself, hoping that deep breathing thing worked for the non-pregnant parent just as well as it did for the one giving birth. Although from where she stood, nothing seemed to be helping Kate very much. There was a lot of yelling, some of it between Celia and Bonnie it was true, but mostly from Kate. She was not having an easy go of it now - the entonox didn’t seem to be doing much more than making her a little spacy - and there were so many concerned women crowding around the bed, that Caroline doubted she’d ever see the mother of her third child actually give birth to their daughter. And that line of thought threatened to spiral her away on an entirely differently terrifying tangent. ‘This is no time to feel faint!’ she told herself sternly. ‘Kate’s doing all the hard work! All you have to do is be supportive.’

She’d love to be supportive. If she could get anywhere near Kate, she’d show her just how supportive she could be. Caroline leaned morosely against the wall, shuffling in between Alan and Gillian. Surely that capable-looking midwife wouldn’t let this go on for much longer?

“You all right?” Gillian asked, just as the midwife barked “Enough! Everyone out but the father!” They all looked around the room. The only male present was Alan.

“Oh, I’m not the father,” he said proudly, “I’m the grandfather.” After a beat he added “Well, the baby’s grandfather. I’m Kate’s … sort of father-in-law I suppose? Does that count?”

“No!” every woman in the room responded.

“Ok. No father. Is there a birthing partner?” the midwife tried again.

“Me!” said Bonnie.

“Her!” Celia and Gillian said simultaneously, between them pushing and pulling Caroline to the foot of the bed.

The midwife looked questioningly at Kate, who held one hand out to Caroline. "If you're expecting me to say something cute" she gritted out between clenched teeth, "like 'do you want to dance', you have another think coming. This _hurts"_. 

Caroline reached over and grabbed Kate's outstretched hand, shuffling her way past a frowning Bonnie. "I know love", she said soothingly "but you are doing so well." She touched her forehead to Kate's and whispered "I am so proud of you and so, so thankful to be here. I'm not going anywhere. I'm right here."

Kate started to cry. "I'm scared" she whispered, so softly that really only Caroline could clearly hear her.

Caroline felt something crack inside her. She suddenly understood why John had wanted to stay far away from the labour room when she'd been having William. This sense of helplessness was the worst feeling she could remember having, worse even than being in labour herself, because at least then she'd been drugged and had her mother there saying ...

"You're going to be fine love. Everything will be fine. You're in good hands, and you are strong and ready for this. Oh my goodness, you are going to be _fantastic_ at this".

"I don't feel so fantastic" Kate sniffled, but she smiled a watery smile when she said it. 

\----

Three hours later, and 6 cm dilation. Her world had been reduced to numbers. How many centimetres, how many panting breaths, how long did that grunt of pain last, another spoon of ice chips, yet another finger broken in Kate's vice like grip on her hand...

“Caroline!” Kate called out. The effects of the entonox made it sound as though she was talking through a wad of cotton wool, but there were definite undertones of anger in her voice. “You are never touching me again.”

Caroline rubbed Kate's feet with what she hoped was a soothing motion and murmured "That's all right love."

"I mean it," Kate ground out blearily. "You did this to me. You are never coming near me again with your ... your ... big hands and ..." the rest of her complaint was lost in yet another protracted groan of agony. 

Caroline caught the midwife grinning at her outraged face. 

"They almost always don't mean it."

"Great. Very comforting."

"The mothers, they say all sorts of things in here."

"I bet." She remembered how she'd sworn off ever having sex again, if only they would get this baby out of her. Now. 

"She's doing really well," the midwife said, her voice earnest now, "You both are."

Having never been one who needed external validation, Caroline found that strangely comforting.

\----

Four hours. 9cm. So close, Caroline was ready to scream with the frustration of it. She couldn't imagine how Kate was managing to not claw her way up the walls

Celia, Gillian and the others kept popping their heads in, for as long as the midwife would allow, to check on the progress. Caroline had managed perfectly well with all the women, but when Alan asked "And how are _you_ doing love?" she suddenly found herself on the verge of tears. "I'm ... I'm ok." She swallowed hard. "It's just ... she's in so much pain, and I can't _do_ anything, and I just want this to be over and her to be ok ...for them _both_ to be ok." She brushed angrily at the tears that had started falling. "Bugger".

Alan patted her arm affectionately. "It'll be all right love. When our Gillian was born, they wouldn't allow me in the room. Fair wore a hole in the floor, all the pacing up and down I did". He sighed."Took a bloody long time too. But then she was here and it were grand. Grand". 

"I can't really imagine Gillian as a baby".

"Aye. Well. She had some lungs on her".

"So, nothing's changed much then".

It was good to have something to laugh at, and someone to laugh with. 

Alan clasped her hand in both of his. "You be sure and tell Kate too, I'm that proud of the pair of you. Can't wait to meet my newest grandchild".

Caroline's face crumpled into sudden sobs. She hugged the man who had been more of a father to her in a few short months than the man whose blood she'd shared for most of her life. 

\----

Six hours. 10cm and time to push.

Their midwife was settled at the end of the bed, keeping an eye on things, and Kate was having a relatively calm moment between contractions and pushes. She was covered in sweat, her clothes saturated in it, her hair lank against her face, her eyes dark and sunken with fatigue.

"You're beautiful," Caroline said in tones so reverent, that Kate's reaction was a mixture of tears and laughter.

"You need some rest."

"I do. _And_ you're beautiful." 

"Can't believe you did this twice. You could've warned me."

"Would you have listened?!"

"Probably not." Then, with a fond smile, "I do love you, you know."

"Only because I've agreed to take the 3:00a.m. feeds."

Kate laughed, then stopped suddenly. "Oh."

"What's wrong?" demanded Caroline, panicked. She turned to the midwife "Is everything - "

"I see the head. Now then Kate, you're going to want to push. Don't."

"Just like we practiced," Caroline slipped immediately into Headteacher-during-a-crisis mode. "Short, panting breaths. You can do this love, we're nearly there". 

\----

Seven and a half hours. One baby, girl; ten toes, ten fingers; everything else present and accounted for.

Two exhausted but contented women lay on a narrow hospital bed, sheltering a tiny body between them. The family had been kicked out of the room by harried nurses who really didn't care what baby names the respective grandmothers preferred. This was the first quiet moment Kate and Caroline had had together since the hectic dinner that started this all off.

Kate was watching Caroline as she watched their daughter's tiny sleeping face.

"She's _perfect_. Oh my goodness my darling, but you did _well_."

"I glad she meets with your approval." Kate laughed softly.

"Oh she does. She _does_." She traced one finger delicately over dark baby-curls. "She has your hair. I like that. I was a bit worried she'd be a ginger."

Kate snorted. "You're never going to get over Greg, are you. Besides, what about William? You love his hair."

Caroline ignored that. "She's going to love Oxford. I wonder if -"

"Wait a minute. What makes you think she's going to Oxford? What if she wants to be - oh I don't know, an actress or something?"

"Lots of good drama colleges in Oxford."

"Caroline, she's not even a day old yet. We don't even have a name for her! You can't be picking her colleges now!"

Caroline leaned down and kissed a tiny forehead, and then leaned up and kissed her lover's mouth. "She will be perfect, no matter what she does. But I've been planning for her future from the day you told me about her."

"We weren't even together then. I was barely talking to you!"

"I know." Caroline said sheepishly. "I'm a bit sad."

Kate shook her head, a quiet smile on her face. "I love you." she said fervently, "And I love you," she placed a gentle hand on her baby's forehead "Little Ruth".

"Ruth?! Over my dead body. The kid's'll be calling her all sorts of names! Besides, she looks like a Miranda."

"What, like that tall comedian who isn't even that funny?!"

As they continued to bicker affectionately, little Baby McKenzie-Elliot lay contented and warm, safe in the knowledge that whatever she ended up being called, and wherever she went to school, and whatever she decided to do with her life, she would have the great good fortune of having two strong mothers forever on her side.


End file.
